State Briefs 6/27/08

Friday

Jun 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMJun 27, 2008 at 4:37 AM

State Briefs 6/27/08

Twenty indicted in check fraud scheme

SPRINGFIELD – Arrest warrants have been issued for 20 people, including the three ringleaders and their helper, in a fraudulent payroll scheme where people would work just long enough at a job to garner a paycheck, recreate the check and then cash it.

The estimated loss from the scheme is at more than $40,000.

According to grand jury indictments handed down Thursday, Jennifer Edwards, 20, Shawn Frye, 20 and Richard Davis, 21, headed the scheme with some help from Frye’s mother, Patricia Whittaker, 35, who would scout for accomplices.

All four are charged with Class X felonies punishable by six to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Springfield police started investigating the case in January. The indictments indicate all violated the Illinois Financial Crimes Laws, which allow those who spearhead organized rings such as this to be prosecuted even if they don’t cash a single check.

State Journal-Register

Pavement buckling is ‘somewhat typical’

MONMOUTH — An IDOT engineer said it was not unusual for portions of U.S. 34 to buckle, as it did over the weekend.

Two cars were involved in accidents Saturday when they struck part of the westbound lane of U.S. 34 that had buckled, right before the Cameron exit.

“At this time of the year, that's somewhat typical,” said Shane Larson, operations engineer of the Illinois Department of Transportation District 4 out of Peoria. “It's just the heat. The pavement expands, there's nowhere for it to go, so you have pavement blowouts.”

Larson said the fact that these pavement blow outs happen several times each summer was not a sign of poor design. The road, built in the mid-80s, is made of reinforced concrete without any joints. He said when IDOT does "major rehab" on U.S. 34, they will look at adding some expansion joints in different locations to relieve the pressure.

Monmouth Daily Review Atlas

Man charged with harassing a witness

BELVIDERE — A Belvidere man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of harassment of a witness.

Jose Antonio Tavares, 30, allegedly threatened a witness involved in a January narcotics investigation, which resulted in the arrest of his brother, Jose Israel Tavares.

The original narcotics investigation occurred on Jan. 18. Belvidere police, Boone County sheriff’s deputies, DEA Task Force officers and the FBI searched a residence and took possession of more than half a pound of cannabis, multiple firearms, ammunition, drug packaging material, cash, three vehicles and the residence.

Jose Israel Tavares, 34, was charged with unlawful possession with intent to deliver 100 to 400 grams of a controlled substance, cocaine, a Super Class X felony; and unlawful possession with intent to deliver cannabis, 30 to 500 grams, a Class 3 felony. On Jan. 5, Jose Israel Tavares began serving a six-year prison sentence at the Shawnee Correctional Center.

The arrest of Jose Antonio Tavares concluded a one-month investigation by the Belvidere Police Department’s Narcotic Unit. Jose Antonio Tavares is being held in the Boone County Jail on $60,000 bond. If found guilty of the Class 2 felony, he faces three to seven years in prison.

Rockford Register Star

Man sentenced under ‘Adam Walsh Act’

PEORIA – A new federal law left no option Friday but life in prison without parole — plus 10 years — for a man who’s spent his adult life stalking and sexually assaulting children, including one as young as 18 months.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm, however, had no regrets in sentencing Justin Rosenbohm, 30, of Peoria to that fate. "I believe you’ve earned it," he said.

Rosenbohm, a repeat sex offender dating back to 2000, struck a friendship with his East Bluff neighbors last year and used it to prey on their 18-month-old son and 11-year-old daughter while babysitting them, Mihm heard. The toddler’s father alerted police when he saw a nude picture of his son on Rosenbohm’s computer.

Rosenbohm is the first person sentenced under the new federal statute known as the "Adam Walsh Act," named for the murdered 6-year-old son of "America’s Most Wanted" host John Walsh. The law requires mandatory life plus 10 years in prison when an offender, already convicted of a sex offense involving a minor, repeats that crime.

Journal Star, Peoria

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